{"id":4642,"date":"2017-09-18T14:05:56","date_gmt":"2017-09-18T14:05:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/performerstuff.com\/mgs\/?p=4642"},"modified":"2018-08-23T18:33:18","modified_gmt":"2018-08-23T18:33:18","slug":"diva-alert-15-dolores-gray","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/performerstuff.com\/mgs\/diva-alert-15-dolores-gray\/","title":{"rendered":"Diva Alert #15: Dolores Gray"},"content":{"rendered":"

Diva Alert #15: Dolores Gray<\/h3>\n \"\"<\/a><\/span>

Written by Jackson Upperco<\/p>\n

September 18, 2017<\/p>\n<\/font>

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Welcome back to Diva Alert, Performer Stuff\u2019s series on Great Dames from the Golden Age of Broadway. In these posts, we\u2019re taking a look at some of the American Musical Theatre\u2019s most legendary ladies, along with their seminal stage triumphs.<\/em><\/p>\n

With success on both sides of the Atlantic, a record-setting Tony win, and several classic numbers she can count as \u201chers,\u201d this is a diva that you should know. She\u2019s a belter, a babe, and a broad. She is…. Dolores Gray.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Born to a pair of vaudevillians, Dolores Gray was already singing in supper clubs by the time she was a teen, and got her first big \u201cbreak\u201d on Rudy Vallee\u2019s radio program. Following a few uncredited film appearances, Gray made her Broadway debut in the 1944 revue Seven Lively Arts.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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After a starring role in a musical that closed out of town, Gray hopped the pond and played Annie Oakley in the 1947 Original London company of Annie Get Your Gun<\/em>. During this time, she studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts. She returned to New York a star and played opposite Bert Lahr in the musical revue Two On The Aisle<\/em> (1951).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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She followed this Broadway triumph with a Tony win for her work in Carnival In Flanders<\/em> (1953), which lasted a whopping six performances \u2013 thus setting an unbeaten record for the briefest-played Tony-winning turn. Hoping to bank on this acclaim, Gray went back to Hollywood and made four pictures from 1955-\u201957. She was back on the New York stage in 1959, opposite Andy Griffith for a Tony-nominated performance in Destry Rides Again<\/em>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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She wouldn\u2019t make it back to the Great White Way until 1967, in a short-lived musical adaptation of The Man Who Came To Dinner.<\/em> But Gray once again found victory across the pond when she replaced Angela Lansbury in the coveted diva role of Madame Rose in the 1973 London Production of Gypsy<\/em>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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In the years thereafter, Gray never stopped entertaining \u2013 touring in a one-woman show, stepping into the role of Dorothy Brock in the Broadway production of 42nd Street<\/em>, and introducing \u201cI\u2019m Still Here\u201d to British audiences in the 1987 production of Sondheim\u2019s Follies<\/em>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Although she isn\u2019t as well-known as Merman or Martin today, Dolores Gray was a Broadway workhorse who always commanded a stage \u2013 a true diva. She once recalled: \u201cMy mother once said to me, ‘It’s not a very happy life unless you make it very big.\u201d So she did.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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DID YOU KNOW?\u00a0<\/strong>As a toddler, Gray was caught in a Chicago gangland shooting. She performed the rest of her life with a bullet lodged in her lung.<\/p>\n

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Gray\u00a0Roles You Should Know<\/strong><\/h4>\n
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Star in Two On The Aisle<\/em> (1951)<\/h4>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n